MAXWELL LORD & SUPERMAN versus WONDER WOMAN

Sacrifice Part 4 of 4 (DC)
Where: Wonder Woman #219 When: September 2005 Why: Greg Rucka How: Rags Morales, David Lopez, Tom Derenick, Georges Jeanty & Karl Kerschl

The Story So Far...
The exploitation of magic to rewrite a villain's personality began a cover-up within the Justice League that unraveled with the murder of Sue Dibny. Remembering his own mind was altered -- Batman created a stealth-concealed satellite to monitor the League and their actions in secret.

Discovered by Maxwell Lord; the Brother Eye satellite becomes a tool for a new incarnation of the covert intelligence organization Checkmate. As their Black King, Lord exploits the technology to initiate the OMAC Project and prepare for a war against super-powers.

Not content with relying on technology alone, Lord also uses his powers of mind control to turn Superman into his ultimate weapon. With the truth exposed by mental probe: Wonder Woman heads to Checkmate headquarters to confront the source of the visions that have turned Superman against the League!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Draw 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Draw 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Superman 6 (Mach Speed)
Stamina: Superman 6 (Generator)
Agility: Superman 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Wonder Woman 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Superman 5 (Lasers)
Total: Superman 33 (Super)

Throughout much of the modern age Superman and Wonder Woman have been shown to be approximate equals. They share in similar degrees of elevated strength, durability, stamina, speed, and even flight. So what separates them?

We're catching Wonder Woman at a time when her Amazon heritage appears to be manifesting itself through harsh justice. We observed this with a bloody follow-up issue that saw Cheetah invading The Haguge in Wonder Woman #222.

Wonder Woman's warrior training arguably makes her a more technically proficient fighter than Superman, who usually has the luxury of relying on strength and invulnerability. She demonstrated this fighting off both Vixen and Fleur-de-Lis simultaneously in JLA: Classified #3.

Although incredibly strong, Wonder Woman doesn't always hit the same peaks as Superman. In Crisis on Infinite Earths #6 the Earth-One Wonder Woman struggled to tame Mary Marvel with her lasso of truth. She fared only slightly better in Final Crisis #3, losing a one-on-one struggle. Captain Marvel was also able to endure a corrupted Wonder Woman in Underworld Unleashed #3.

Superman has had his own struggles with the powers of SHAZAM.  Captain Marvel took him to the limit in Action Comics Annual #4, Superman/Batman #4, and Superman #216. A similar standstill occurred when Black Adam kept Superman to a tactical draw in DC Comics Presents #49,

Both Superman and Wonder Woman have faced the magical strength of Marvel's Juggernaut and passed with flying colours. Superman kayoed him with a sucker punch in DC versus Marvel #1, while Wonder Woman earned a more substantial win in a tag team slobberknocker with Spider-Man in Unlimited Access #1!

Superman is fighting today under the mental influence of Maxwell Lord which could be a key factor. Breaking the chemical influence of Poison Ivy was vital to Batman & Catwoman defeating him in Batman #612.

The tyrant Superman of Superman/Batman #15 showed he has the strength and speed to brutalize Wonder Woman if given the inclination. Infinite Crisis #1 showed a more reasonable disagreement. If the Lasso of Truth can overcome Max Lord's programming Wonder Woman should win.

History: 1-0-0 (Superman)
The Tape: Superman Ranking: Superman (#5)

What Went Down...

Max Lord stands gloating as The Man of Steel holds Wonder Woman to one knee with a hand around her throat. Superman is completely under his mental control.

A trickle of blood from Lord's nose is the only hint of strain dominating the world's most powerful man. He asks Superman to let her go, supremely confident that she won't attack. He tries to reach into her mind too, but cannot. She sees with the comprehension of a god. Lord's projections will not cloud her truth.

Words become Wonder Woman's weapon as the seasoned ambassador attempts to engage Lord in discussion. He recognizes her skill before revealing the entirety of his plans. Threatened, he strikes, summoning his most powerful weapon from the torment of visions of Doomsday murdering his beloved wife: Lois Lane.

Like a speeding bullet Superman darts toward them -- leading with laser focused bursts of heat vision.

Wonder Woman scrambles to throw her hands up, just barely deflecting the blasts with her magic bracelets. It is a short-lived defense as Superman is suddenly upon her, clutching her throat as he jets them out of the building.

Bereaved by telepathic visions of Lois Lane's death he screams her name. He's holding nothing back, rocketing out of Earth's atmosphere on an unknown journey with what he believes to be Doomsday.

Searing beams of heat vision find their target immediately, burning at the bones beneath Wonder Woman's cheek.

She cannot escape. Held mere inches from Superman's blazing red eyes by an unshakable choke hold. All she can do is plunge her thumbs into his eyes to try to stop the flow. Even as she does, heat begins to engulf them as they near the sun.

Superman tries to turn away, heat vision streaking around him as it bends to their incredible momentum. A moment of separation is all Wonder Woman needs to reach into her belt and retrieve the kryptonite she was given by Batman!

She thrusts it forward, but even in his confused state Superman knows the risks of exposure. He swings with all his might, hitting Wonder Woman so hard she blacks out for an instant!

Careening through space the Amazon begins to stir as the friction of her body re-entering Earth's atmosphere causes her to burn. Too late to do anything about it as gravity ushers her back to the planet with an all mighty explosion on impact!

An interstate highway in Wyoming is reduced to a massive crater. Superman hovers over it as a dazed Wonder Woman attempts to talk him down.

All Superman can see is the unstoppable monster he thinks murdered Lois. He vows to stop it, freezing his target in place with a powerful gust of exhaling.

Superman hoists a massive chunk of Earth over his head and moves in to crush his intended target. Only Wonder Woman has escaped the ice, quickly darting completely out of sight.

She waits in silence for the Man of Steel to stop talking and start listening intently with super-human accuracy. Once he does, she lingers behind him with arms out stretched. A plot to turn his incredible power into a devastating weakness!

The sound of Wonder Woman slamming her enchanted bracelets against Superman's sensitive ears is agony!

He grabs his ears as as the thundering sound echoes within and a tiny trickle of blood spurts from them both. Wonder Woman wants to hold back, but she must seize her chance.

The Amazon warrior kicks Superman in the side of the head, then buries her heel in his left knee. A snapping right hook catches him, sending his head falling hard into the ground. A combination designed to buy the time to reach for her lasso!

The gambit shows far more finesse than anything Doomsday would be capable of, but Superman suddenly seems remarkably focused on stopping the lasso.

He closes in at speed, forcing Wonder Woman to dedicate her arms to defending simultaneous incoming strikes from either side. Another blast of heat vision forces Wonder Woman to move, the two of them dancing around each other with the Lasso of Truth coiled just out of reach of snaring its subject.

Superman grabs Wonder Woman's lassoing right wrist. She retaliates with a rising palm thrust of her free hand. It catches Superman's steely chin, but he doesn't break his grip. He just squeezes and bends the wrist tighter. Then snaps it!

Wonder Woman lets out a scream. She wonders what new visions must be driving this precision attack. She realises that Maxwell Lord is the real threat.

She ducks a haymaker, supporting her injured wrist. Then charges at Superman, narrowly avoiding his heat vision to deliver a kick that sends him hurtling across the landscape!

Shifting a bracelet provides support for her broken wrist. A call to nature summons a flock of birds to provide her cover. A distraction easily dealt with by a vortex of air created by flying in circles, but enough to allow her to escape.

The Amazon returns to Checkmate's castle headquarters to confront Max Lord head-on. She easily ensnares him in her golden lasso and hoists him off the ground by the neck. As she does: Superman returns. A problem soon remedied.

With a rapid swing Wonder Woman tosses the tiara from her head like a discus -- sending it perfectly hurtling across Superman's jugular!

Shocked, the Man of Steel wraps a hand around his own throat and applies pressure to stem the flow of blood. He suddenly sees his opponent for who she really is as Wonder Woman convinces Lord to release his control.

Superman sifts through his reality as if waking from a nightmare. He holds his wound, coming to grips with the horrors he had witnessed. Illusions cast by the man Wonder Woman now has at her complete mercy...

She asks Lord how to permanently free Superman from his hideous influence. She takes him at his word. With a hand on his chin and head she twists -- snapping his neck and severing his spinal column. With that Maxwell Lord is dead.

The Hammer...
Heading into this one I thought there might be two fights to review, but upon revisiting Wonder Woman #219, it's clear there is one. Superman was a tool for the real villain Maxwell Lord. In the end: Wonder Woman defeated them both.

Max Lord's conspiracy against superheroes recalls his earlier history as a pawn of the hostile artificial intelligence Killg%re. Its plot was behind his efforts to establish a new Justice League corporation in the wake of Legends, which included the willful manipulation of the original line-up of heroes.

The corporate shark gained mind-control powers from a gene bomb detonated by The Dominators during Invasion. His time with the Justice League only saw limited exposure to Superman, but he was never the less able to gather sufficient intelligence to exploit The Man of Steel with just the right mental suggestions.

The decision to fatally snap Maxwell Lord's neck proved a pivotal step in defining Wonder Woman for the remainder of the 2000s and beyond.

There have been many defining moments in the character's history, but the sense that there was no enduring definitive reference remained a pervasive issue for her modern post-Crisis incarnation.

Who really is Wonder Woman? What sets her apart from equivalents in the DC pantheon? Her status seemingly relied on image: Lynda Carter in live-action, and the comics drawn by George Perez. This impression, true or not, invited writers to extract answers in the most logical place: her mythic Amazonian origins.

There's no ambiguity in the final page of Wonder Woman #219. She asks Max how to stop the visions that haunt Superman enacting violence against innocents. She doesn't hesitate in the slightest to act upon his lethal answer. She simply stares Lord down and twists his head.

It was a further parting of the ways for the DC trinity through their approaches to heroics. I tried to define this as part of my "Totem of Justice" around the time, where Superman was the hero of higher ideals; Batman was militaristic force in kind; and Wonder Woman the "life for a life" level of justice by warrior's code.

It's interesting that Zack Snyder featured a similar scenario in his Man of Steel film, recasting Superman as the neck-snapping protagonist - rather than the somewhat hapless, reluctant witness he is in today's battle.

Both examples appear to address misplaced internet-age criticisms of Superman's moral integrity, and his vast power to live up to it.

Snyder takes the increasingly popular cynical approach, bringing Superman down to "our" level by corrupting him and the use of his powers. Sequels doubled down on tropes of both a tyrannical "evil" Superman, and a weak Superman, specifically reprising the Death of Superman in only his second cinematic outing.

These are fundamental betrayals of the Superman character, but Wonder Woman has always walked a fine line of contradiction between an "ambassador for peace" and Amazon warrior princess. Her brutality under extreme circumstance appears measured, and in some ways feels like an enhancement of her heritage, rather than a betrayal of it.

Wonder Woman #222 requires Diana to answer for her actions, while also further establishing her tendency towards a warrior's resolution.

It's a tricky balance, but it seems relatively well struck by Greg Rucka and his collaborators, with some small debt to earlier runs that explored her heritage.

Further mitigating Wonder Woman's culpability for the death of Max Lord, at least in the eyes of the reader, is the impression that Superman was the stronger of the two. He'd already beaten up Batman and the Justice League, by this point. Left unchecked, who knows what he would've done under Max Lord's influence.

If you came here to see which icon is strongest, you could walk away with mixed impressions. Although Wonder Woman ultimately won through grit and redirected guile, it was clear Superman controlled most of the fight. Circumstances had it that he wasn't holding back the way the rational Wonder Woman might've been, but it also seems about right that he is the more powerful of the two.

That said, I'm not entirely sure how to read Wonder Woman's finishing blow.

It could be taken that the earlier introduction of kryptonite, though brief, was enough to soften Superman enough to pierce his skin.

I find that preferable to any alternative that might imply magical origins of Wonder Woman's tiara somehow allowed it to cut him. As I've said many times, I don't subscribe to the theory that magic is a "weakness". Just a vulnerability subject to the logic of spells that exist to circumvent our conventional reality -- the reality by which Superman is conceptually determined to be exceptional.

If you'd like to make your own assessments about this reality you can find the battle collected in both Superman: Sacrifice and Wonder Woman by Greg Rucka Volume 3: War in Paradise.

Use either of the Amazon links to purchase online and you'll not only get yourself a great deal to prepare you for Wonder Woman and Max Lord's big screen meeting in Wonder Woman 1984 -- you'll also support the site at no extra cost to you!

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Winner: Wonder Woman
#11 (+2) Wonder Woman
#5 (--) Superman
#937 (new) Maxwell Lord

THE CAPTAIN versus COLD WAR

Cold War (Marvel)
Where: Marvel Comics Presents #2 When: September 1988 Why: Al Milgrom How: Al Milgrom

The Story So Far...
Having turned in the stars & stripes of Captain America: Steve Rogers now patrols the streets as a crime-busting freedom fighter clad in red, white, and black!

When an accident at the New York Center for Cryogenics draws his attention, The Captain unwittingly becomes the target of an otherworldly creature known as The Fear Eater!

Seeking to stoke The Captain's inner most fears, the creature uses its awesome powers to transform a hapless worker into an icy agent of terror. Cold War commands the ice and he intends to put The Captain in another deep freeze!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Captain America 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Captain America 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Captain America 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Captain America 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Captain America 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Captain America 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Cold War 4 (Arsenal)
Total: Captain America 28 (Metahuman)

The Captain in name, but Captain America by reputation: Steve Rogers handed in his famous uniform & shield when the government attempted to recall him to service after discovering he was never officially discharged from the US Army.

A previous plot to cover-up government corruption had withered his faith in modern political officials, but far from done serving his country, Rogers used a small fortune in awarded back pay to establish a new crime-fighting identity.

To compensate for the loss of his shield he received an adamantium replacement from Tony Stark. Otherwise, this is the same indomitable super-soldier who fought in World War II, and was thawed from icy slumber in the modern age!

The threat of freezing is a major factor in today's battle when he faces a brand new villain called Cold War!

Cold War derives his powers, and apparently his malice, from the influence of an invisible demonic alien known as the Fear Eater.

The mysterious entity travelled to Earth after an encounter with Silver Surfer, and has used its powers to transform an accidentally frozen cryogenics facility worker into a super-villain intent on returning The Captain to an icy coma!

For all intents and purposes Cold War appears to be a villainous counterpart to Iceman. His body is iced over, and he can project freezing cold, also using it to create icicle projectiles, or an extending ice slide he can ride upon.

His powers alone pose a serious threat to Cap, but combined with the Fear Eater's ability to exploit and exacerbate The Captain's internal fear -- it could be a deadly combination!

Cap's no stranger to facing overwhelming odds. When the Avengers met Ghost Rider in Avengers #214, he helped defend his teammates from the demon's fearsome hellfire. In Infinite Gauntlet #4 he didn't even flinch while staring down certain death in the final stand against Thanos!

That capacity for selflessness and bravery will serve him well, but this is the first time we've looked at an opponent who can repeat his greatest moment of weakness: being frozen alive.

His shield offers some immediate defense against cold blasts, but to avoid the inevitability of the cold Cap's best strategy is to use his super-soldier fuelled speed and agility to stay clear of direct hits and attack quickly!

The Tape: Captain America Ranking: Captain America (#8)

What Went Down...

A standoff is already under way as The Captain vaults across a police car to confront the danger head-on!

He's soon greeted by a flying onslaught of icicles and frozen shards that force him to retreat to the safety of the vehicular barrier!

The cops figure out who the dynamic man in black really is and quickly fill him in on what little they know: An accident has happened at the New York Center for Cryogenics. They can't be sure if the icy projectiles are merely a consequence of malfunctioning technology -- or a malicious party inside the building!

Cap's concern for the employees inside draws the interest of another unseen entity. The extra-terrestrial Fear Eater goes completely unnoticed as he observes all on the street and settles on inhabiting The Captain to exploit his inner fears!

The Captain feels an otherworldly chill of dread, but shrugs it off, completely unaware that the Fear Eater is sifting through the memories of past experiences in search of triggers for unconscious fear it can exacerbate and feed upon.

Cap jumps over the police line and does his best to storm the building -- dodging, weaving, and defending against the shower of icicles with his adamantium shield!

Inside he discovers a shocking sight -- facility employees frozen in ice!

They stand frozen in mid-motion, pointed to the exit with their faces contorted agape in terror. The eerie vision brings up long buried feelings of anxiety in Cap.

His mind remembers World War II and the sensation of falling from Baron Zemo's drone bomber. He remembers plunging into icy arctic waters and the sting of pain before he drifted into a decades long slumber after being frozen alive!

Dread and apprehension seize The Captain's limbs. He bites his lip, all at once realizing his own fear of the terrible cold spewed forth by malfunctioning machines.

Inside The Captain's body: the Fear Eater is nourished by his anxiety, but still wants more. Using its strange alien powers, it reanimates one of the hapless facility employees to become the living embodiment of Cap's fear!

In an instant a new super-villain is born! Cold War rides the crest of a stretching bridge of ice, identified by The Captain as "a cross between Iron Man's old foe, Jack Frost, and The Iceman!"

Cold War reaches out with his hand to project a cold blast he promises is far deadlier than any others!

Cap narrowly avoids the cold snap hitting the floor at his feet, but his shield bears the brunt of the follow-up. Cold War assures: he's delaying the inevitable. Soon enough the growing cold will overwhelm him at the centre of a new icy kingdom.

The villain's prophetic threats prove true as solid ice begins to form around The Captain's feet, rising up to his knees and thighs!

Cold War gloats, but as The Captain is overwhelmed by the possibility of his life being stolen from him again he's inspired by the new friends he's made in the modern age. He fights his fear and uses the edge of his shield to break the ice!

He leaps into the air to dodge another blast from a dumbfounded Cold War. Then glides across the slippery surface to deliver an all mighty kayo with his shield!

With The Captain's fears now mastered, the Fear Eater takes invisible leave of his body to search for another host. Cap carries the unconscious Cold War to the street outside, never knowing of his vanquished alien foe!

The Hammer...

A nice little sideways romp through one of Captain America's off-brand years.

The story is one of four chapters that ran last in the beginning issues of Marvel Comics Presents. Each episode sees the Fear Eater alien inhabit a different hero, starting with Silver Surfer in space, working his way through Thing and Thor.

Fear Eater is kind of a lame stock sci-fi villain. The design is pretty unremarkable, and his motivation of gaining sustenance from fear is perfunctory at best. A meat & potatoes story that didn't leave much of a mark on the Marvel Universe, save for the spieces' brief return a couple of years later in Doctor Strange.

The real appeal of this chapter is the Fear Eater's creation of another antagonist and the way it plays with the history of the hero character.

We all know the story of Captain America's modern day origin. He was thrown from an exploding rocket in the dying days of World War II, and frozen alive in the icy waters of the arctic. The super-soldier serum allowed him to survive the ordeal and be thawed out by the Avengers decades after the war had ended.

The Captain is a paragon of strength and bravery, but you've got to figure an experience as traumatic as that might leave an impression. Which makes an ice wielding villain an interesting foil, especially with the Fear Eater stirring things up.

Alas; Cold War made even less impression -- never appearing again. We don't even know who he really was. Just one of the hapless workers who happened to be in the New York Center for Cryogenics when The Captain came along.

There are other ice villains, but with such a clean slate, it strikes me that it could be interesting to see Cold War expanded upon in any number of ways.

He seems to develop animosity towards The Captain as spontaneously as the ice powers granted by Fear Eater. It might be interesting to learn there's more to Cold War than meets the eye. Perhaps he was a saboteur who deliberately started the violent malfunction of cryogenics equipment. Perhaps he's a hostile foreign agent of some sort. The kind of Russian adversary Marvel heroes thrive on. The super-villain moniker certainly lends itself to that sort of thinking.

The possibilities are endless, and sometimes that's the fun of digging back into these overlooked or forgotten short stories. Marvel Comics Presents is a mixed bag, but I hope we'll be able to get back soon to find more curios and gems!

If you want to discover more stories like this one you could follow the links throughout this post, or dive into the Secret Archive. That's where you'll find an index of every featured fight in order of publisher, series, and issue number!

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Winner: The Captain
#7 (+1) The Captain (Steve Rogers)
#935 (new) Fear Eater
#936 (new) Cold War

THE CONTEST: KILLER FROST versus CAPTAIN AMERICA

It had to happen! The Grandmaster has watched the Secret Wars on Infinite Earths for many years and now he comes with a challenge: I must select 12 heroes & villains from the DC Universe to do battle against his Champions of the Marvel Universe! Grandmaster's team competed in the first Contest of Champions and set an allowance of 5000pts based on fixed Fight Club Rankings. Each battle will be decided by you in fantasy fight polls held on Twitter, Facebook and Patreon!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Captain America 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Killer Frost 5 (Professor)
Speed: Captain America 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Captain America 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Captain America 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Captain America 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Killer Frost 4 (Arsenal)
Total: Captain America 28 (Metahuman)

We've reached the final three and things are heating up! The last round tipped the balance in my favour, but The Grandmaster has been conserving points to deliver some of his biggest hitters at this late stage of The Contest!

Captain America is a Top 10 combatant who'll cost a whopping 938pts, but for that premium price The Grandmaster gets an A-list Avenger famous for his never-say-die fighting spirit!

Cap came into being when he received Dr. Erskine's experimental super-soldier serum to fight the Axis powers of World War II. He's defeated Red Skull's deadliest weapons of death and even punched Hitler in the face, but once thawed into the modern age of Marvels, he became as well known for standing his ground against unwinnable odds, as he did winning wars.

The net result of this is a 45.2% win rate recorded on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths. His total victories are higher than most, but for every ideological triumph against Master Man, MODOK & AIM, Neo-Nazis, or SHIELD -- he's been deadlocked against the likes of Black Panther, Nebula, Batman, -- or outright beaten, as against Thanos, The Destroyer, Mister Hyde, Iron Man, and Hulk!

What does this all mean? Cap's unwillingness to back down can be both a strength and a weakness. Its what allowed him to reacclimatize to the modern world after being frozen in ice for decades. You might be seeing where I'm going with this...

Killer Frost is another cheap recruit for the home team at only 31pts. Just like her nemesis Firestorm in the last round: Dr. Louise Lincoln has the potential to create a unique chemical reaction with her opponent. After all, who better to stop Captain America than someone who can freeze him in ice?

An irony if Killer Frost is that she actually consumes heat, as we saw in Green Lantern #127. That means she won't be easily melted, but also won't have a font to draw from against the otherwise powerless Captain America.

To beat Cap at his own game I think I'd have to spend up big, so this is a purely tactical choice. Just like the last round I genuinely think there's potential for my bargain pick to claim a win, but I'm also content just to conserve points for the final two battles that lie ahead!

The Verdict...
This is where you come in! The fate of The Contest must be decided by an impartial third party and that means you have to choose who wins each battle! Vote for the winner on Twitter or Patreon, and share your thoughts about how the fight goes and who wins in the comments below, or in a reply to any of those services.

Polls will last for one week. Once they've finished: results will be tallied and I'll include the best comments right here as the battle is decided. Did I manage to beat The Grandmaster's champion? Get voting right now!